


Let It Happen

by videokids



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Five Stages of Grief, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Issues, M/M, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:15:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 21,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24424126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/videokids/pseuds/videokids
Summary: Galo ends up taking Lio out to the lake to show him how to vent his grievances because he started to notice that Lio was seeming to be a bit down and depressed. While this is happening, Lio is undergoing the grieving process after losing a solid part of who he was as a Burnish. Due to this, he ends up getting angry and takes it out on Galo not knowing what to do or how to handle it. Of course, this causes Galo to be hurt since he didn't know what he did. Sad and confused, Galo makes the decision that the two should part ways. Later on, when asked about what happened, Galo opens up about the situation to a friend and they talk about the events. He learns that he is probably the one person that Lio needs at this point in time and rushes over to help him. They sit down and end up talking about everything, Lio gets sad and admits that he's been confused and doesn't know what to do anymore. Galo offers help. Through the conversation, the two realize they have feelings for one another.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15
Collections: Promare Big Burn 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Art for the story is done by Ellie! Follow them on twitter @lieutenantguyshadow to see more of their art!

“What do you mean you can’t get the bike to start?” Lio huffed and crossed his arms as he watched Galo fumble around the motorcycle trying to figure out what just happened. “Galo Thymos, the sun is setting and it’s starting to get cold. What are we going to do?”

Galo turned around to look at Lio, a sheepish grin settled on his face. “Uh… Lio? We have a bit of an issue.” He rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet trying to figure out the best way to deliver the news that he forgot to make sure there was enough gas in the tank.

“Well? Thymos, what is it? You can’t exactly tell me we have an issue and not say anything.” The bite in his tone sent waves through Galos’s body, “I for...got… to check the level of the gasinthetank.” 

“What?” 

“I forgot to make sure I had enough gas in the tank.” He put his head in his hands. “I thought we had enough to come out here and go back.” 

“GALO THYMOS! That’s something you should always check, how the fuck can you forget doing something like that?” Lio’s voice had a hint of frustration specked with exasperation. 

“Lio, I’m sorry.” His shoulders dropped and he just looked at the ground, “Kray was right, I can never do anything right. No matter what it is, I always manage to mess something up somehow. I was just so excited to have this trip with you… I just. Forgot.” 

The melancholy tone in the other man’s voice immediately caused Lio to regret his last few comments, unfortunately, it was too late to take back what he said but he wanted to apologize for them. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to make you feel-” he stopped midsentence, realizing what Galo had just said. 

_Excited? To have a trip with me?_ The thought caught him completely off guard, the fact that someone that he had only encountered and worked with a handful of times went and chose to spend time with him surprised Lio. “Galo…” 

“Oh!! Yeah!! I did!” Any previous hint of the melancholy notes in his voice had completely vanished, leaving only the usually bubbly excitement he always exuded when talking to just about anyone. “I… yeah!” He paused for a few moments trying to formulate the best way to explain his reasoning for the day’s adventure. “You know how I told you I just wanted to ride out here just to see how this place looked after everything that happened that night? Well, that wasn’t completely one hundred percent true. It’s a small bit of it, but there’s something more to it.” 

He moved away from the bike and walked past Lio, towards what used to be the shore of the lake. Looking over his shoulder, he motioned to the other man to follow him. Galo was uncertain of how he was going to break the news to him and decided to continue to walk the rest of the way in silence. Once they got to the shore, he sat down and looked up at Lio who soon followed suit. 

“Up until recently, I was the only one who knew about this place. The true meaning it holds for me…” Pulling his knees up to his chest, he wrapped his arms around them before continuing. “Back before we kind of destroyed it, this place was a pretty neat little lake. I don’t know if you remember it or not since we kind of y’know… busted it during our tiff.” 

Lio nodded, “I remember a bit of it… I mean, I did bring the other burnish here after we escaped from the Freeze Force, but, it was a bit dark.” 

Galo continued, “Yeah. Anyways, this place was kind of something that only I really knew about, when I got really frustrated or couldn’t control my feelings about things I would always come here to just yell out my frustrations. It’s quiet and secluded so I’d never get judged for just losing myself for a little bit.” 

“Where are you going with this, Thymos?” 

“Patience, I’m getting there.” The sudden reply surprised Lio, he just sat there in stunned silence. “Listen, what I’m trying to get at is, I wanted to share this place with you. After everything that’s happened, I’ve noticed that you’ve been looking a bit down and depressed and sometimes even frustrated. I thought that you’d be able to use this place too. I don’t know what it’s like for you right now, and I don’t think I could ever imagine what it would be like. I mean, you have to kinda readjust to a lot of stuff now that the promare left.” 

The statement took Lio by surprise. The fact that someone this goofy and carefree would go out of his way to help someone like him out like this was a foreign concept. It honestly caught him off guard and took all the words out of his mind. Unable to speak, he just looked up at Galo with a blank expression. 

“Did I say something wrong?” The other man looked at him with a concerned look on his face. 

Lio shook his head, “No… you didn’t.”

Something about Galo’s concerned look made a small feeling in the pit of his stomach flutter to the surface. Unsure of what to do about it, he just pushed it out of his mind. Just like he did that one night when he learned about Galo saving his life. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the feeling, it was just something that he wasn’t used to. Sure, there were people who always looked out for him, Guiera and Meis always did… but that was probably just because they had been together for the longest time. They didn’t make Lio feel this way at all. This feeling was definitely something new. 

“Do you wanna try it? Yelling out your frustrations?” 

“What do you mean? I don’t think I get it.”

Galo chuckled, “There really isn’t much to understand. You just yell about the first thing that comes to your mind. No matter how stupid it may sound. No one is here to hear it, no one is going to judge you. Hell, I could even cover my ears if you wanted me to. I could always go first.”

“Maybe…” He had so much on his mind and honestly didn’t know where to start. He knew what he wanted to say, but it was probably stupid. Even if Galo said it didn’t matter, it still made Lio nervous. He just wanted to buy some time is all.

Standing up, Galo smiled and placed his hands on his hips before turning to Lio, “Watch this.” Taking a huge breath, he cupped his hands around his mouth and looked up to the sky, “KRAY I CANNOT BELIEVE I TRUSTED YOU. YOU WERE LIKE A FATHER TO ME YET YOU BETRAYED ME FOR YOUR OWN PERSONAL GAIN. YOU RUINED THE CITY, ALMOST KILLED INNOCENT PEOPLE. **I DON’T THINK I CAN EVER FORGIVE YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID!** ” 

It definitely was something else to see someone yelling to no one about anything but he still wasn’t sure if he was ready to air his grievances. “Could you… do it again? I don’t think I understand just yet.” Of course, that was a bit of a lie, but there just was something that Lio found comforting about watching this weird display of whatever was going on at the moment.

“Sure.” Galo once again took the position and inhaled again, “MY FAVORITE PLACE IS RUINED BECAUSE OF YOU.” 

Hearing the taller man say that, brought a small chuckle to Lio’s lips. There was just something so endearing about seeing someone get so worked up about a lake no one knew about. 

“Wh-what?” Galo looked down at him, a bit flustered. 

“Oh, nothing… but I think I know what to do now. Thank you, Galo Thymos.” 

Lio stood up next to Galo and hesitated before starting, “I don’t have to do it exactly as you did, do I?” 

“Heh, no. I just think it’s more fun that way!” 

The innocence in his reply brought back that fluttering feeling again, “Alright, well here I go.” Taking a moment to gather everything he opened his mouth and let everything out. 

“I REALLY DON’T KNOW WHO I AM ANYMORE. I DON’T KNOW WHERE I BELONG. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO ANYMORE. MAD BURNISH IS OVER AND I JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!” It was silent for a few moments until _it_ happened, Lio’s voice started to crack and warble, his throat started to knot up, “I’m so scared… I don’t know what to do or where to go. I’m so… lost.” 

Hearing him begin to cry, Galo didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know if he should leave, or stay. He had a feeling that was what was bringing Lio down, but he wasn’t prepared on how to help with it. Standing there felt awkward and like an invasion on the other’s privacy, but leaving would probably seem like a dick move. Going with his gut feeling, Galo inched closer and placed his hand on Lio’s shoulder as a sign of silent comfort while he sobbed with his head in his hands. 

“I’m sorry, Lio… I’m so sorry.” That’s all he could bring himself to say. Nothing else seemed right. 

Feeling Galo’s hand on his shoulder was unexpected, but not unwanted. For some reason, it felt… right. There was a certain comfort to the taller man’s touch, but he wasn’t aware of why Galo would’ve been touching him, it hadn’t registered that he was crying yet. 

When it finally sank in, Lio looked up at Galo with an embarrassed expression and dewy eyes, “Don’t look at me…” He felt horrible pushing Galo away, but it was the only thing he could think of doing at that particular moment in time. 

“Alright…” He felt horrible for causing Lio to cry even if it wasn’t what he intended. He felt stupid for even suggesting the idea of yelling about what was bothering them. _Sometimes it’s just best to let sleeping dogs lie._ The phrase played in his mind over and over again. Feeling that it was best to leave Lio alone, Galo started to turn to leave but felt something tugging on his arm.

“Please don’t go…”

“But you said-”

“I know what I said, but does that mean to just leave me, Galo Thymos?”

“No… I guess not.” He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, confused as to what was going on. Mixed signals weren’t fun and they were way too confusing to understand. “I just don’t understand.”

Lio sighed and looked up to Galo again, “I don’t want to be alone.”

“I can do that, is there anything else that I can do?” Galo looked at Lio and smiled.

“I don’t know… we can’t exactly get back to Promepolis can we? As you said, there’s not enough fuel in the bike. We’re kind of stranded out here and… you said no one but you knows where this place is.” He paused for a few moments, “Galo Thymos, please tell me that was a joke.”

Galo looked up at the sky as if he was hoping it was going to give him the answers he needed, silently pleading that some sort of divine intervention was going save them. “Uh…”

“Thymos. Answer me.”

“Okay, okay. There’s only one other person who knows where this place is, but I don’t know if I can get in contact with her. She’s not on call today and I don’t exactly know what she does in her off time. I mean I can try to call someone and see, but I really don’t think we’ll have any luck.”

Aina was always so hard to reach sometimes, especially when she was off. No one really knew what she did in her off time. Well, one person usually knew but getting in contact with him sometimes had an adverse reaction.

Remi never really liked to be bothered, even for small trivial things. No, _especially_ for trivial things. More so for trivial things caused by one Galo Thymos.

“I can try to call Remi… but I don’t think that would go well. Just, just give me a second.” He walked off and paced a few times before taking the cellphone out of the saddlebag of the bike. Taking a few deep breaths and psyching himself up he placed the phone to his ear and waited for the ring to sound. _Please go to voicemail, please go to voicemail…_

“Hello, Rookie…” Galo could feel the vitriol coming from his voice, “ _what is it this time_?”

_FUCK._

“R-Remi! Hiiiii. I have a question for you.”

“Spit it out, I don’t have all day.”

“Do you by chance know where Aina would be?”

“You’re serious, right? You’re calling me about the whereabouts of Aina? Have you even tried calling her, or did that just completely bypass your mind?”

“I did think about it, yes.”

“That’s not what I asked you but whatever. She’s off seeing her sister tonight so she’s not going to be back here until tomorrow morning.” There was a slight pause on the other end of the receiver. “Why? What did you do?”

“I uh… I kinda… Ikindaforgottomakesuretherewasenoughgasinthetanktoday.”

“YOU WHAT?”

“I forgot to check the level of gas in the bike today before I took a trip somewhere.”

“No, I heard you. It was a rhetorical question.”

“Can you just, can you just tell Aina that I need her help and I’m at the lake?”

“Can’t you just tell her yourself? Galo, _I swear to god._ ”

Galo could practically hear Remi pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“Look, okay, I’ll tell her myself. I’m sorry for bothering you.”

Silence.

“Goodbye R-.” The call ended before he could even say goodbye.

Lio looked over at Galo and could tell exactly how the call went by just seeing the sad puppy look plastered on his face. It oddly struck him as cute and immediately felt those fluttering feelings rushing back. _What in the fuck just happened to him_?

Oblivious to what was happening to Lio, Galo looked back at his phone getting ready to text Aina about his unfortunate situation.

“Aina!! Help!! I messed up!! I went out to the lake and I didn’t check something and now I’m stranded! I don’t know what to do! You’re the only one who knows where I am. Can you please bring me some gas to get back home? Please??? It’s getting cold :(“

He pressed send hoping for a swift reply.

Exhausted, he walked back to Lio who was still sitting in the same spot where Galo left him. “So I uh,” He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck again trying to figure out how to break the news.

“We’re stranded, aren’t we?”

Lio’s response took him by surprise. “Ah… yeah.”

“Oh well, it’s been a while since I’ve had to camp out somewhere. I honestly think the last time was when Freeze Force came and raided my camp with all the Burnish refugees…” His voice started to trail off.

“I’m sorry Lio. I should’ve thought this out more.” Galos’s shoulders slumped in defeat.

“No, Galo Thymos, it’s okay.”

Something about the prospect of spending a whole night with the other man caused Lio’s heart to skip a beat and in turn caused a blush to creep into his cheeks. In an attempt to hide it, he looked at Galo and sighed.

“You have experience with this, right? I’m sure you needed to do some sort of survival training when you were in your classes to become a firefighter.”

“A little bit, but that was a bit ago. I don’t really remember it all. I just remember that you should probably make a shelter and then the next thing was to…” His mind went blank when he remembered the first two steps to surviving the wilderness. One, make a shelter. Two, make a fire for warmth.

“Galo Thymos don’t tell me…”

He nodded slowly.

“Thymos, please. Or we’re gonna freeze to death out here, it’s not the warmest tonight.”

“But…”

“Yeah, I know. You don’t ‘start fires, you only put them out’.” Lio sighed. “It’s for survival, you’re not doing it for like fun.”

“It’s not that…”

“Well, then what is it? Don’t tell me you’re actually _afraid_ of fire.”

His statement was met with an awkward silence from Galo. A fireman afraid of fire, which was the first Lio had ever heard of that one before. Gauging from Galos’s reaction, he was right and it had struck a bit of a nerve with him.

“Don’t...”

He had definitely struck a nerve with Galo.

“You don’t even KNOW.”

“Galo… I’m sorry.” Lio genuinely felt guilty for saying what he said. He felt shameful and was now intent on making it up to him and apologizing for it. “You’re right, I don’t know. I didn’t mean to say that. How about we split up the tasks? I’ll take care of the fire and you can go look for stuff to make a shelter for the night.”

Galo nodded silently and walked off to look for something that could easily be used for the night. The temperature was dropping fast so he needed to work quickly.

Kicking a rock he mumbled to himself while looking around haphazardly. How dare he say something like that? Didn’t he remember from the fight with Kray? The whole fact that he had basically admitted to burning his house down, effectively killing everyone besides him that night? Galo knew he shouldn’t be too upset about it, Lio probably just forgot. _I mean, he almost died that night, right? He has more stuff to be dealing with rather than remembering stupid things about me._ He balled his hand into a fist and looked up to the sky, “WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO BE THE ONE LEFT OUT AND FORGOTTEN? WHY AM I ALWAYS THE ONE LABELED AS THE IDIOT? I’M NOT AN IDIOT. I’M NOT…”

Tears started to stream down his cheeks, it had been a while since Galo had been drawn to the point of tears. It was unfair, no one seemed to take him seriously. He hated how it made him feel and sometimes it made him hate himself. Going through the list of people he knew in his head, he started to make a silent checklist of who they were and how they probably felt about him. The only positive outcome he could think of was just Vinny, but did Vinny even count? He was just a rat. Rats loved anyone who gave them attention.

_Now is not the time for this, focus on what you were sent out here to do._

He collected his thoughts and started to think of things that could be used for shelter; tree branches, trees, a tarp… everything just didn’t seem feasible since there was just destruction from the Foresight Foundation’s mishap.

“Ouch… what the hell?” He looked down, seeing that the rock he was kicking had been kicked towards another boulder. “Stupid rock…”

_Wait… rocks… rocks can sometimes come from…_ “CAVES! We can stay in a cave. There’s that one around here that I found Mad Burnish and the other refugees in!”

Galo turned around sharply and started to run back towards where he left Lio, shouting for him the whole way back, “Lio! LIO!! The cave! We can stay in the cave!”

“Lio!!!” Hearing his name yelled in the distance he dropped the wood that he was collecting to make sure that the fire didn’t have a chance to die out that night. “Lioooooooo! … Cave!!!”

_What is he yelling about?_

“The cave Lio! The cave! We can stay in the cave!”

The taller man came bounding back through the trees, not paying attention to the roots that were sticking up out of the ground, “Thymos! Watch out!” But it was already too late, Galo was already mid-fall and he was too far away to help break the fall. Before he knew it, Galo was face down in a pile of dirt.

“Are you okay?” Lio knelt down next to him, offering a hand to assist Galo up. Giving him a quick look over, he was pleased to see that he wasn’t hurt too badly. Just a few bumps and maybe a bruise or two. There was something cute about seeing him a bit roughed up, though. 

“Yeah, I’m okay. It doesn’t hurt.” Galo stood up, brushing the dirt off his shirt and smiled while taking Lio’s extended hand to help him up. “I’m not normally this clumsy… I swear.” He chuckled to himself. 

“I can somehow find that hard to believe. Now what was it that you were yelling in the distance about? I didn’t quite hear it.”

“Oh! The cave! Remember?” 

“Cave? What cave?”

“The one we kinda like met in… for the first time?” Galo looked away trying to hide the blush that was starting to rush to his cheeks. There was something about that night that kicked feelings into overdrive for him. “You know… the one you tie-“

Lio cut him off before he could finish his sentence, “Oh. Yeah, that one.”

There was a brief moment of awkward silence between the two men before it was broken again by the shorter one, “Well, show the way would you? I don’t quite remember where it was exactly on account of it being dark and all.” 

“Sure, sure. It’s this way.” Galo turned around to start walking off in the direction he had just come from, stopping as he felt a slight pull that kept him in the same place. 

“Thymos?”

“Yeah?” 

“You can… you can let go of my hand now, you’re back up on your feet you know.” 

He hadn’t realized he was still holding Lio’s hand. Embarrassed, Galo let go and started walking again making sure to avoid looking back. He didn’t want Lio to see his face and vice versa. It was odd, it didn’t feel wrong to him for holding his hand longer than expected. In fact, it felt oddly right. Shaking the feeling off, he continued to lead the way for what felt like an eternity in silence. 

The sun had set just as they reached the cave making it feel colder than what it actually was outside. The atmosphere felt dark and gloomy, and it didn’t help that the two men weren’t in the most pristine of moods since the earlier events took place. Galo shivered slightly as the cool, damp air seemed to penetrate through his jacket and straight into his bones.

“C… could we maybe get the fire going, I’m starting to feel cold.” Galo asked softly. 

Lio nodded and knelt close to the ground arranging the tinder and sticks in a way that was sufficient for a fire big enough for two people. He held his hands out waiting for the fire to come from him. He was still getting used to losing the Promare within him.  
Disappointed, he looked up at Galo and sighed, “I can’t do it, I forgot…” 

Galo knelt down next to him, placing a hand on the blonde’s shoulder, “Lio… I’m sorry… I…” 

Lio pulled away from him, “You _knew_. _You knew I didn’t have the Promare anymore and you just thought I’d forget_.” He felt betrayed. “Do you think you’re so funny? ‘Hey, Lio, light the fire for me please, I’m cold. I can’t do it all on my own. Please?’ You know what, Galo Thymos? No. I won’t. If you want a fire so bad, why don’t _you_ do it? Get off of your fucking high horse and light your own fucking fires.” He could feel the anger building up, not being able to contain it anymore he continued on, “I don’t know who you think you are, dragging me out here like this in the middle of nowhere on the guise of showing me someplace dear to you. But I have news for you, Galo. It’s fucking shitty. I hate it. I hate that I agreed to even join you.”

Galo stepped back, horrified. He didn’t know how to respond, he just stood there listening to Lio yell.

“You act like you care about everyone, but you don’t. The only person you fucking care about is _yourself_.”

“L… Lio…”

“I don’t want to hear it.” He turned around, away from Galo. Too enveloped in his rage, he didn’t even notice the stream of tears falling down his cheeks and onto the floor. “You don’t even care.” His voice warbled. 

“That’s not true. I do care. Lio, look at me. Please.” Galo feebly protested. His words fell on deaf ears. “Please…”  
He sank to the ground in defeat, he failed his job to help someone.  
“I’m sorry.”

Looking over his shoulder, he saw Galo just sitting there staring at the floor. He had gone too far this time. He didn’t even know if there was anything worth salvaging after this one. He knew it wasn’t right. He didn’t mean what he said… he was just mad. Mad at the world, mad at himself. Lio was grieving.  
The blonde didn’t even know what to say let alone do, he had hurt the one person who was always there for him. They had even saved the world together and yet here he was, treating Galo like an incompetent fool. Unsure of what to do, he just laid down and stared at the wall hoping to fall asleep. Maybe this was all just a nightmare and when he woke up it would all be over.  
“I’m sorry.” He closed his eyes and fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Morning couldn’t come fast enough since the two had gotten into an argument the fire was never made. Galo managed to get a little bit of sleep in short bursts of fifteen minutes or so, but would always wake up once the cold had gotten to him. Lio, on the other hand, was able to sleep just fine, he treated it like any other time where he had to sleep outside without any warmth whatsoever.  
Unable to take it anymore, Galo got up and walked out of the cave to sit somewhere in plain sight in case anyone from the department was coming to help them out. Remembering that he had asked Aina for help, he pulled out his phone hoping for a reply. Nothing. Frustrated and completely at a loss for what to do, he threw it on the ground next to him. Exhaustion was starting to hit him hard. He wanted to toss up the fact that he couldn’t sleep well to the night chill in the cave but the true reality was that he couldn’t stop thinking about what Lio had said about him. Did he really only care about himself? Was that the true reason why he brought Lio out here? He just wanted to push it all out of his mind. The trip needed to be over. Picking up his phone again, he tried to text Aina again.

“Aina, please come get me when you get this. I’m at the lake. Bad turn of events. Thanks.”

Hopefully, she responded soon. 

Lio woke up to see that he was the only one in the cave and Galo was nowhere to be seen. Remembering everything that happened the night before made his stomach turn. He had no right to do what he did and say what he said. The other man was only trying to help. The day had started off so well but for some reason, it just started to turn sour. And honestly, it wasn’t anything that Galo had done. It was all himself, something had just seemed to flip a switch inside of his mind flooding him with anger.  
Leaving the cave he immediately started to look for Galo hoping that he hadn’t left him behind, he wanted to apologize for everything that happened. It didn’t take long for him to find Galo, his blue hair definitely stood out in the green of surrounding flora. Nervous, he walked up behind him and softly cleared his throat.

“G-Galo…”

Hearing his name, he turned around to see Lio standing there staring at the ground. He didn’t want to answer him. He was afraid that he was just going to get yelled at for leaving him alone without waking him up. 

“Listen, I need to say something.”

“You’ve already said enough, Lio”

The sharp tone felt like an arrow going through his heart. 

“You… you don’t have to listen if you don’t want to but please let me speak. I feel like I need to apologize for everything. Last night, I wasn’t in my right mind. I was upset and I didn’t know what to do. I accidentally ended up taking it out on you. I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean what I said to you last night.” 

Galo held up a hand to stop the other man, “It’s over. What’s done is done. What’s been said has been said.”

More arrows pierced his heart.

Galo continued, “I’ve already asked Aina to come get me. I’m just waiting for her. Here, use this and get a hold of Meis or Guiera to get you. I don’t think we should go back together.” He handed his phone over to Lio, hands shaking. 

“I understand. Thank you, Galo.” He walked away to make the call. 

The phone rang a few times before the other end picked up, “Mmmm… hello?” It was Guiera. 

“Guiera, it’s Lio. I’m sorry for waking you up, but I need something.”

“Boss! What’s wrong? Are you okay? What happened?” He could tell there was something different compared to Lio’s tone of voice. Something definitely had happened.

“Do you remember the cave we hid the Burnish settlement in for a while when we broke out of the Freeze Force Headquarters?”

“Yeah… why?”

“I need you to come meet me there. I need you to come pick me up. Please…” His voice started to crack, he couldn’t keep up with a straight face anymore. “Please… something went wrong and I messed up big time.”

“Boss… I’m coming right now. Stay where you are. I’m leaving now.” The call ended. 

He walked back to Galo, handing him his phone trying to hide the tears in his eyes. “Thank you, Galo. Guiera said he would be on his way soon.” 

The other man nodded and checked his phone to see if Aina had said anything. He was in luck, she had answered him this time, it was from five minutes ago.  
“Got it. I’ll be there soon.” 

The mood had turned cold and somber, Lio and Galo sat next to each other in silence hoping their rides would be there soon. Occasionally one would open their mouth to say something, but decided against it to avoid complicating things further than they already were. The next fifteen minutes were spent in excruciating silence. 

Almost as if it were an answer to silent prayers, the sound of engines revving filled the air. Someone was coming. It was too early for either Lio or Galo to tell who it was, but they both stood still in their respective spots. To their surprise, both Aina and Guiera had arrived at the same time. 

“Hey, it’s time to go home.” Aina got off of the bike and walked towards Galo. She had never seen him this upset before. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she led him to the extra bike. “We’ll send the others back later to get your bike back. I think right now, we should just go home.” 

Galo nodded, her voice was soft and comforting. He went to check his bike to see if there was anything he needed before leaving it behind. Satisfied, he got on the bike behind Aina while taking one last look over his shoulder. He nodded and put on the bike helmet leaving a very melancholy Lio in the distance. 

He felt bad for leaving Lio behind without daying anything, but he was sure that he and Guiera would get back to wherever they were staying just fine. He felt like it was best to just let it go for now. He didn’t want to fuck up more than what was already fucked up. He said it before and he’d say it again, it was best to just let sleeping dogs lie.  
He clung to Aina the whole ride back trying to stifle tears. He didn’t know what they were, but for some reason, he felt utterly heartbroken. It was too much for him to bear. The whole plan sounded nice in his head, the guilt was already starting to eat him up from the inside out. The half an hour or so back to the station was hell. 


	3. Chapter 3

Getting off the bike, Aina looked at Galo, she could tell that there was something wrong. She didn’t know how or if she should approach her friend. She debated on letting him come to her on his own accord, but she also felt like he needed someone to talk to now. Going with her gut, she stood next to the blue-haired man waiting for him to take his helmet off. 

“You can go on ahead, it’s alright.” He protested, knowing what was already going on. “Aina, I’m fine. I promise.” At this point he was trying to stall enough to avoid taking the helmet off in front of her, he didn’t want anyone to know that he had been crying. It was stupid, right? Crying over someone who was a little more than a complete stranger. Who even did that? 

“Galo…” She didn’t know how to respond. Aina knew he was hurting, maybe she should just let him come to her when he was ready. Giving in to his request, she started to walk away but was quickly stopped, feeling a force pulling her in the opposite direction. 

“Please don’t go…” He uttered softly. 

The defeated tone in his voice shook Aina to her core, something had definitely happened. Question is, what _exactly_ happened? She was worried. Turning to look at Galo, her heart sank further. He was standing there, shaking and trying to hold back his tears. He looked so miserable.  
“Galo… what happened?” Before he had a chance to speak she looked around to make sure no one else was around and ushered him into the station making a beeline to the barracks. Everyone else seemed to be out. For further peace of mind, she shut and locked the door behind them while Galo sat on one of the beds, putting his head in his hands.

“Am I selfish?” 

The question caught her off guard. “Selfish? What do you mean?”

“Am I selfish? Do I only think about myself and not others? Am I always putting myself first?” His voice started to crack again. 

“What? No… no… you’re the one person who is the furthest thing away from being selfish. What brought this about?” Aina’s worry had morphed into concern. Going out on a limb, she sat next to him, putting a hand on his shoulders. “Did something happen yesterday?”

Galo looked at her with his teary eyes and sighed, nodding in acknowledgment. He wasn’t quite ready to tell her, he wanted a few moments to collect his thoughts. “Could I have some tea or something? I need to just calm down a little more.” 

“Of course. I’ll be right back.” She got up and walked out of the room to one of the few vending machines they had in the kitchen area. There was definitely something there that she could get. 

While Aina was gone, Galo took a few deep breaths trying to find his center again. He’d be damned if he cried anymore than he already had. The previous day’s events continued to play through his mind over and over again. It started off amazing… but something happened. He just couldn’t pinpoint what the tipping point was. Lio had seemed so much calmer after he yelled about what was bothering him. He seemed like he was enjoying his time with Galo.   
For a split second, he even recalled the few times when their hands brushed past each other or when they held hands for one reason or another. Remembering how it felt, Galo smiled a little. At least he still had that to remember from the other day. 

When she came back, Aina saw Galo smiling a little. She was relieved to see him in a better state than he was less than fifteen minutes ago. “I’m back. Are you feeling better, Galo?” Sitting down next to him again she smiled and handed him his tea, “I’m glad to see you smiling.”

“Ah… yeah. Just remembering some things. It all wasn’t _that_ bad yesterday. I just don’t know what happened.” He sighed, beginning to tell her everything from the beginning. Turning the cup of tea in his hands, he took a sip and began.   
“I had noticed that Lio seemed a bit more down and out after everything that happened with Kray. I thought that maybe it would’ve gone away after things started getting back to normal, but he still seemed so upset. I thought maybe he just had some stuff on his mind and needed to let it all out. So I decided to invite him to the lake yesterday to kinda show him what I do when things start to feel like they’re getting to be a bit too much for me.” He took another sip. “It seemed to go well at first… but he started to get a bit emotional. It was all my fault, I was so excited to spend time with him that I forgot to make sure the bike had enough gas to get us from here to there and back again. I don’t hold it against him for getting so upset about it. I mean… he managed to calm down a bit after we vented about things and made peace with the fact that we were basically stranded until today.” Galo shrugged his shoulders, “That’s kind of where it all started to go downhill from there. We both split up to find things in order to get shelter for the night. I offered to go find shelter while he found things to build a fire for us to keep warm… that’s when I started to notice something being off…” His words started to trail off, Galo was starting to remember the tipping point. “When we got into the cave… Lio started to seem really agitated… I don’t remember how it went or what lead up to it, but we got in an argument over the fire.” A knot had begun to grow in his throat. “That’s when he called me selfish and just started getting really angry really fast. It took me by surprise. He called me selfish and said that I only cared about myself. Lio said he hated even being with me…” Galo hung his head and just let the tears fall again. Recalling the events to someone else seemed like it hurt more than it did when it all originally happened. 

Finally hearing the story, Aina felt bad. She didn’t know how to respond, she just sat there next to Galo with her hand on his shoulder while he sat there crying.  
“Galo… I’m so sorry.” She didn’t know what else to do. There had to be a reason as to why Lio got mad, but she really couldn’t say so for sure. Figuring it was best to just leave it for the moment, she just spent her time comforting Galo. 

“What did I even do? That’s the issue… I just don’t know what I did. I can’t apologize because I just _don’t know_ what I did to make him so mad.” He looked at Aina, searching for all the answers. 

She had a faint idea but didn’t think it was the best time to tell Galo. What she thought could potentially make him feel worse than he already did. But she hated letting things hang in the air.  
“Listen, I think we should take a few steps back and just focus on getting you feeling better for now. We can come back to this later. I’ll talk to Ignis and Remi to see if you and I can switch our shifts for the next couple of days. I want you to go home and relax. I’ll come back and see you when the shift is up. How does that sound?” 

Galo nodded and stood up, “Thank you, Aina. I’ll try to relax a little. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” 

“I’ll see you tomorrow evening, Galo. Go home and get some sleep, you look like you need it.” She smiled and walked him to the station door, waving at him as he left. “Text me or call me if you need me! I’ll respond!” She called after him. 


	4. Chapter 4

“What the fuck is his problem? He can’t even say goodbye to you?” Guiera muttered annoyed as Galo and Aina left the other two men behind.

“Guiera… now isn’t the time.” Lio was frustrated and he didn’t want to hear about it. “I just want to go home now.” 

“I understand, Boss.” Guiera folded his arms and nodded. “We should be getting back soon, Meis was asleep when I left and he doesn’t know that I’m gone. You know how he gets.”

“Do you mind if I drive? I need to keep my head clear.” Lio didn’t know why he was even asking, he was already straddling the bike and starting it up. It felt weird to him to just keep staring at the abandoned motorcycle that belonged to Galo. He needed to get away from anything that reminded him about everything that happened yesterday.

“No, of course. Let’s get out of here.” Guiera climbed on behind them and they set off towards their apartment.

It didn’t take long for them to get back home, Lio practically sped the whole way home. He had no care for the law at the moment, the faster he went it seemed the clearer his head became. Getting to the apartment, he parked the bike and thanked his friend for coming out on such short notice. 

As the pair climbed the stairs they started to hear panicked yelling from inside the apartment. They were discovered.   
  
  


“Guiera??? Where are you? Hello???” Meis was already panicking. 

“Meis! Meis! We’re outside! Just give us a second.” Guiera called back to his partner. 

Lio wasn’t the only one who was still suffering the after-effects of everything that had happened to the Burnish. Meis still woke up in cold sweats thinking Freeze Force was coming to pick them up. It had taken a toll on them all. 

As soon as Lio and Guiera stepped into the apartment, Meis threw his arms around the both of them, “I thought you were gone… I thought they had gotten you again.” 

“No, we’re okay. I just needed Guiera to pick me up from somewhere.” He hugged his friend tight, feeling bad for causing him to panic so much. It was over now.

“Oh! Speaking of yesterday, how did it go?” Guiera asked innocently. 

The question sent a jolt down Lio’s spine. He just wanted to leave it all behind and just forget about it all, the anger started to rise up within him again. He hit the wall trying to avoid getting mad at his roommates. They had seemed to get the message that something wasn’t quite right about it at all.   
  
  


“I’m going to bed.” He wasn’t in the mood to talk about it at all. He didn’t want to think about it, he didn’t want to think about Galo. He didn’t want to think about how much of an ass he was to him. Lio knew he should probably apologize, but he just didn’t think that he would be able to. In his mind, there was no coming back from what he did. 

He laid in bed for what seemed like hours, he as tired but couldn’t seem to fall asleep. His mind was way too loud. Tired of just staring at the walls and ceiling, he got up out of bed and wandered out into the living room. He didn’t want to admit it, but he needed someone to talk to. Meis and Guiera were sitting on the couch watching tv and almost didn’t notice Lio coming out to join them. He looked at the other men and smiled weakly. The two knew something was wrong. 

“H-hey… do you guys mind if I talk to you about something? I just don’t think that I can ever get it off of my mind if I don’t do anything.” 

“What’s up?” Meis turned off the tv and turned to Lio giving him his full attention while Guiera followed suit. They were always there for each other in times of need. 

“I think I fucked up big time.” 

“In what sense?” Guiera was the first one to speak.

“With everything. With Galo. Yesterday… I did some things that I’m not proud of. I don’t even know what came over me. I just got so angry over something so small and so stupid. It all started off great but I went and fucked it up.” Lio sat back, sinking into the couch. 

“What happened?” 

“We got to the lake and he was showing me something to do that was supposed to help me feel better, and I must admit, it _did_ make me feel a bit better. I felt like I was at peace with everything that happened. It was the first time where I felt like I didn’t need to worry about losing the Promare and losing who I was as a person essentially. But when it was time to go back, Galo apparently forgot to make sure there was enough gas in his bike… we were essentially stranded. So we made the mutual choice to just seek shelter and stay there for the night. I felt the anger slowly start to build inside of me. I began to yell at him for the smallest things. But I got over it quickly.” 

Meis nodded, “I’d probably feel the same way, but I feel like there’s more to the story. There’s no way that just running out of fuel was going to affect you in the way it’s affecting you right now.”

He continued, “It kind of took a turning point when we decided that Galo was going to find a place to stay and I was going to look for stuff to start a fire. I didn’t pay much mind to it at first but…” He clenched his fist. “But we ended up staying in the cave we all were in when we escaped Freeze Force and when he asked me to light the fire, I just lost it. I told him he was selfish and just lost it on him. I feel so horrible. He was only trying to help and I told him I hated everything.” 

“Boss…” The pair of men placed a hand on each of Lio’s shoulders. 

“We understand where you’re coming from. I think anyone who was once in our situation and was put in the position you were in would feel the same way. It’s just how things work…” 

“There’s only one thing that I can think of that’s causing you to feel this way,” Guiera added. “I think you might be grieving.”

The word took Lio by surprise. Grieving? What did he mean? There wasn’t anything to grieve or morn. 

“What do you mean?”

“It’s only logical, Boss. Meis and I are going through the same thing, honestly. We’re not grieving the loss of anyone else but ourselves. Think about it, we’ve all lost an important part of who we were. We’re not Burnish anymore, we’re just human now.” Guiera offered the explanation in the best way he could put it. 

Lio never thought about it that way. It exactly wasn’t really put out in front of him in that way. But what Guiera said made sense. He was seemingly going through the motions of loss and grief. The feeling of hopelessness, the denial that he still had the Promare, the small periods of anger that sometimes followed his periods of denial… his bargaining. The only thing that was missing was the acceptance of who he was now. It all made sense now. What was he supposed to do? Call up Galo and explain it all to him? No… he probably never wanted to see Lio again. 

“I see. Thank you.” 

“It’s what we’re here for. We’ve been with you through the thick and thin if we stopped being by your side now… what kind of friends would we even be?” Meis smiled patted Lio’s shoulder. 

“But that just only helps half of the issue. I don’t know what to do about yesterday. It’s nice to have some of the answers, but I want the whole picture. What do I do about Galo?” 

“That… that maybe should be left for another time. From what you told us, he’s probably really hurt. Give him some space. I’m sure the right time to apologize will come.”

“When would that even be? I don’t want to wait forever… I don’t know about him but…” Lio paused, remembering the feeling of butterflies in his stomach when he watched Galo the other day. 

Guiera piped in, “If we had that answer, we’d probably be the richest people in Promepolis right now.”

“I don’t want to lose him.” 

Realizing what he had just said, Lio turned bright red. He didn’t want anyone else to know, but he actually had started to develop some feelings for Galo. The idea of losing him after everything that happened scared Lio to no end. 

Picking up on what he was eluding to, Guiera smirked and thought about teasing his friend about his crush but decided against it and gave him some last-minute advice instead, “It may hurt now, but I think you both need some time apart to work through everything that happened. You two are pretty smart about things like that. I highly doubt a blunder like this would ruin everything.”

“You’re right… thanks again, guys. I’m feeling a little better.” Lio smiled and turned the tv back on to spend some quality time with his friends. It was always best to be around the people that care about you the most when you’re down and out. 


	5. Chapter 5

He unlocked the door and stepped inside his apartment. Sparsely furnished since he spent most of his available time at the station, it still felt like home to Galo. A home away from home to be quite honest. The exhaustion finally hit him as soon as he passed through the threshold, how was he still awake after everything that had happened? It was amazing what the body could withstand. Galo stumbled through the apartment, barely making it to the bedroom. As soon as the bed was within sight, he flopped forward and immediately fell asleep. He was so tired he didn’t even bother taking off his shoes. 

Waking up a few hours later, he looked at the clock, it was 6 in the evening. Though he slept enough to feel recharged, Galo was still exhausted. He still wanted to sleep but knew that he should probably have something to eat. Hopefully, there was something in the cupboards that was quick and didn’t take much time to make. Getting up, he found his phone on the floor.  
“Hm. Must’ve fallen out when I passed out.”

He checked any messages that he may have missed but was relieved to see nothing there. One less thing to worry about. Making his way to the kitchen, he stretched and opened the pantry. Since he was rarely home, there wasn’t much but he had managed to find a bowl of instant ramen. Perfect, it took less than five minutes to make.  
Waiting for it to finish, he stood impatiently in front of the microwave while scrolling through the apps on his phone. A fleeting thought passed by, he opened his messages and started to draft a text to Lio. 

“Hey, I know you might not want to talk right now, but I just want to apologize for everything. If it’s at all possible I would like to talk about everything.” 

He hesitated to hit send, remembering what Aina had told him. She was right, right now wasn’t the best time to do or say anything. Instead, he deleted the message and put the phone back into his pocket. As if on cue, the microwave beeped letting him know his food was done.  
Taking it out and making his way to the table, Galo second-guessed eating. He just didn’t have the appetite and just wanted to sleep for the rest of eternity. Depression was setting in. It had been a long time since he was this far into a sudden rut, he contemplated just letting it take hold of him. 

“The sooner I eat this, the sooner I can get back to sleep.” He incentivized himself to try to stay out of the hole he was already falling into. 

It felt like ages passed before he could even bring himself to finish anything. But he did it. Getting up from the small table, he took care of the garbage and little mess that was left over from making dinner and slowly made his way back to his bedroom. This time he properly undressed and got under the covers. It didn’t take long and he slowly drifted off to sleep.  
He slept pretty hard for the rest of the night and through the most of the next day. The only thing that woke him up was the constant vibration of his phone on his pillow, someone was calling him.

“Hello?” He mumbled, still half asleep. 

“Galo?” 

“Aina?” 

“Are you okay? I just haven’t heard from you. I was just calling to check up on you. How are you feeling after yesterday?” 

“Oh… yeah, I’m okay. I’ve just been asleep. I was more exhausted than I thought I was at first.” He fell silent for a few minutes. “I think so… I just… I feel like I really need to talk to him. I need to just explain everything. I almost sent him a message last night. But I didn’t because I remembered what you said.”

“I’m glad, Galo. I know it’s tough now, but just give it time. It’ll get easier. Do you need anything?” She asked earnestly. 

“Uh… not really. But, would it be okay if we talked more? There’s some other stuff I didn’t tell you yesterday.”

“There’s more?” She was surprised he didn’t tell her the full thing, Galo never really was one to skimp on the details. “I’ll be over in a few.”

“Thank you.” He ended the call. 

Putting the phone on the counter, Galo went back to the bedroom to change into clean clothes. He didn’t want Aina to think he was just being a slob, staying in the same outfit three days in a row. Settling on comfort, he opted for a simple pair of sweats and a plain t-shirt.  
Unsure on how to even start the conversation he wanted to have, he paced back and forth trying to find a good way to bring it up. It felt like an odd topic to talk about, especially after all that happened. He was sure it was going to sound really stupid. 

A knock at the door pulled him out of his cloud of confusion and debate. No closer to choosing a way to a conversation starter than he was a few minutes ago, he opened the door welcoming his friend in. 

“Thanks for coming over.” 

“I already told you I was going to stop by after the shift was over. Is everything okay?”

Faced with the question, everything melted away from Galo’s mind. He still didn’t know how to approach the subject and felt embarrassed just thinking about it. “I’m… fine?” The tone of his voice gave away the true nature of how he was feeling.

“Galo.” Aina put her hands on her hips and leaned in close to him. “Just fine? I think you’re not shooting straight with me.” 

He was found out. Choking back nervousness he sighed and said the first thing that came to his mind, “How do you…. Howdoyouknowwhenyouhavefeelingsforsomeone?”

“Slow down… I didn’t quite catch that.” 

He turned a bright red, “How do you know when you have feelings for someone or might have feelings for someone?” 

Shocked, Aina stepped back. “Galo? What? Who is this… _oh_.” She didn’t even have to finish the question before realizing who he was talking about. “Is it Lio?”

He gulped.

“You _did_ say that there were some things that you didn’t tell me about the other day.” She got a mischevious smirk, “Did a certain _something_ happen, Galo?” 

A certain _something_? What could’ve she meant by that? Oh… _oh… **oh**_. The fact that Aina even thought to bring _that_ up caused Galo to turn five shades redder than normal.  
“No! Oh no… not that. Not at all.” 

“Hm. Curious.” Aina took her friend by the hand and lead him to the couch in the living room. “Sit. Tell me everything that happened.” 

“Aina! I swear to you that nothing like that happened!” Galo pleaded with her, hoping she would understand. “Things _did_ happen. But not **those** things.” He looked off into the distance, trying to find the best way to explain it. 

“Go on…” She seemed upset that it wasn’t what she was thinking of, she always rooted for him from the sidelines when it came to that kind of stuff involving Lio. She wasn’t stupid, she definitely knew how to read the room with certain situations and interactions. 

“Fine… fine. I’ll tell you.” He sighed and looked at Aina, “Just don’t laugh at me, okay?”

She nodded in response, hiding her annoyance that he was dragging something out longer than he needed to.

“It wasn’t intentional… but we ended up holding hands a few times.” Galo looked away, “It didn’t feel like… wrong either. Y’know? I was almost kinda like… upset he pointed out that we didn’t have any reason to keep holding hands after he helped me up from when I fell.” 

This was a new development… Aina waited patiently for him to continue.

“I just kinda got that feeling in my stomach. The butterflies or whatever they’re called. I don’t know what to do about it. That wasn’t the first time that happened either.” 

“Oho, so it’s not an isolated incident?” Her interest was definitely piqued. “What were the other times when you felt it?”

“Oh uh… when he was asking me not to leave…” He was surprised he has almost forgotten about that. 

“Galo… you _like_ him. You like Lio.” She teased lightly. 

“What? No… I mean… maybe? I don’t know.” 

“Don’t protest it, your emotions and reactions pretty much put it out in front of you. You have all the components to solve that equation. You held hands, though it wasn’t intentional, you said you had butterflies. You said you felt bad when you had to stop… you also just said he asked you to stay. I don’t know about you, but I pretty much feel like you’ve maybe developed a small crush on him.” She stopped to think about more examples. “It wasn’t an isolated incident either. You also told me that you were thinking about him that much last night that you wanted to still talk to him even after everything that happened. Galo. You **drafted a whole message to him**.”

Having it all laid out in front of him, he sat back stunned. Maybe Aina was right. Maybe he _did_ have feelings for Lio. 

“And… AND… you can’t tell me that after going through as much shit as you did together with Kray you couldn’t have possibly felt the chemistry there. Jesus Christ, Galo you basically brought him back to like because you inadvertently knew you couldn’t live without him. You two had been through so much together. Don’t deny it, my friend. You have a crush on Lio Fotia.” She smirked, finishing her small winded speech.

“Alright, alright I give up. You got me. So what if I have a crush on him? There’s nothing that can be done about it right now. It’s probably not worth trying to figure out anymore at this point.” He put his hands up in the air. 

Frustrated with how fast Galo was giving in and hanging up his hat, she moved in close to him, “Galo Thymos you can be such an idiot sometimes. You aren’t going to know unless you try.”

“What am I gonna do? Call him and be like ‘Oh Lio, I know you probably don’t want to hear from me anymore after what happened, but I just wanted you to know I have a crush on you, lol’?” 

Aina laughed at her friend’s suggestion, “Sure, but probably not like that. How about you don’t bring up the part about the negativity that happened between you two? Hm… if you don’t want to do it, I’ll do it for you.” She held her hand out towards him asking for his phone with a mischevious look on her face. 

He clutched his phone close to his chest, “No way. I don’t know what you’d even write. How about I draft it up and you can check it before you send it?”

“That’s fair.” She was proud of him for overcoming the obstacles that had been put in front of him. He was really starting to branch out and grow even more as a person. 

The two sat in silence as Galo agonized on what to write. Frustrated, he scratched the back of his neck trying to figure out what the right thing to say was.  
  
  


“Galo. Just let it go and let it happen. You can do this.” Aina cheered him on.

Not seeming to hear her, he looked down at his phone rereading what he said. Everything all put together seemed okay. Confident in what he wrote, he absentmindedly hit send before showing his friend what he had sent to Lio. Hopefully, it was just enough to test the waters and see what the outcome after everything was. It was all up to Lio now to respond.


	6. Chapter 6

His phone buzzed in his pocket. Who was even trying to message him anyway? Everyone was home. Thinking it was probably one of the guys being lazy and asking him to grab something because they didn’t want to get up, Lio left the room he was in and just stood in the living room staring at the couple sitting on the couch.  
  
  


“Listen, your legs aren’t broke grab your own shit.” 

“What?” Meis looked up from the tv to see Lio standing adjacent to it. 

“Whatever it was that you texted me, I’m not going to look at it. You can grab your own stuff from the kitchen.”

“But Boss, we didn’t text you. Guiera is asleep and I’ve just been sitting here.” 

If they didn’t text him, then who did? Not many people had his phone number. He silently went down the list of names until coming to Galo Thymos. Frustrated, he groaned and walked out of the room. What the fuck did this guy want? Everything was said and done. There was nothing to talk about. He probably was just messaging him to say goodbye or something stupid like that. Honestly, Lio didn’t even want to read the message and he didn’t want Galo to know he read the message. Taking precautionary measures, he turned his phone on airplane mode and opened his texts. 

“Lio, if you’re willing, can we talk?”

He scoffed, reading the message. What was there to possibly talk about? He could feel the anger bubbling up inside of him again. How dare he try to talk to him again? Selfish bastard. Deciding the message didn’t need a reply, he turned off airplane mode and put the phone back in his pocket. 

“Idiot. Stupid idiot. He left me alone without saying goodbye and now he wants to talk? FUCK THAT.” He kicked the back of the couch and walked back to his room, he didn’t want anyone to bother him after that. Sitting on the bed, he threw his phone without any direction in mind. He only hoped it landed far enough away from him. Out of sight out of mind.  
After sitting and doing nothing for a few minutes, his anger soon started to melt away and lead to utter sadness. True, he was upset that it took Galo this long to even try to contact him, but the fact that Galo even contacted him made him feel some sort of way. Maybe he _did_ care. Maybe he wasn’t the selfish one after all… left alone with his thoughts, Lio started to crack remembering everything he said again. True, he was yelling it all at Galo… but what if it wasn’t meant for Galo? What if everything he said about being selfish and only caring about yourself was meant for _himself_? The realization scared him. 

Maybe the guys were right… Lio wasn’t angry at anyone but himself. The truth stung and cut him deeply. Galo didn’t have to do any of the stuff he planned, he was doing it to help Lio. He had noticed that Lio wasn’t feeling well and tried to offer him a way to stop hurting. And what did Galo get in return? Nothing. Just misdirected anger and a whole world of hurt. He felt horrible for what he did. It was unfair of him to do what he did. Unable to hold back anymore, he grabbed his pillow and sobbed into it, muffling the noise so Meis and Guiera wouldn’t hear. They didn’t need to be bothered by it. This was something he had to deal with on his own. The more he cried, the worse he felt. 

Slowly, exhaustion got its hold on him and Lio drifted off to sleep. It was unpleasant and fitful, he couldn’t even escape the feeling of desperateness even in his sleep. He was plagued with nightmares.  
Waking up in a cold sweat, Lio got up from the bed. Something didn’t feel right, he felt off-balance and unstable. Thinking it was from the lack of sleep, he laid back down hoping to just drift off into a dreamless slumber. Unfortunately for him, the rest didn’t come. His mind was way too loud replaying his argument he had with Galo over and over again. In a window of desperation and hopelessness, Lio got up again and paced the room.

“I was horrible to him… He’s too nice and forgiving. He wants to talk to me again? No, he just wants to tell me goodbye for good. If I was in his position, I’d probably do the same thing. I doubt he ever wants to see me again.” He talked to himself. The more he talked, the more convoluted his thoughts became. “I should just do him the favor and just take care of it myself. I can’t bear to see him again after hurting him like that. Maybe I should just…” Before he knew it, he was standing on the balcony. Lio could barely comprehend what was going on but was suddenly shot back to reality after hearing his name being yelled. Looking down, he saw the ground and then nothing. It was dark. 

“Boss!”

“LIO!” 

Meis and Guiera called out to him, but it was too late. They were looking at him from over the balcony railing. 

Lio had jumped. 


	7. Chapter 7

Aina’s phone rang, interrupting the moment of pride she and Galo were experiencing. “Hello?”

“I’m sorry for calling you, but are you with Galo?” It was Lucia.

“Mhm… why? What’s wrong?” The concern in Lucia’s voice didn’t sit well with her.

“I was just sitting here and heard over the radio that someone was rushed to the hospital via EMS. The description sounded eerily like the boy Galo was with.”

Her eyes went wide, “Just tell me where to go and I’ll make sure he gets there.” 

Looking over at Aina, he noticed that she was uneasy. “Is… is everything okay?” 

“Just… grab your coat. We need to go.”

“Go? Go where?”

“The hospital.”

“Why?”

She ignored his question while pushing him out of the door. Knowing that she should’ve probably told him, she felt a little guilty keeping quiet about it. But she had her reasons. She didn’t want him to get over panicked and do something stupid. The pair hopped on her bike and sped to the hospital, making it there in no time flat.  
Pushing through the doors, she rushed to the nurse’s desk leaving Galo worrying more and more by the minute. He didn’t know what was going on. Was it Heris? Did something happen to someone at the station? He was confused until he heard a name he was all too familiar with. Lio Fotia. 

“E-excuse me, could I ask what happened?” He looked at the nurse worried as all hell. 

“I don’t know the whole story, but he was brought in by ambulance. A friend of his called it in saying he jumped off of their balcony.” 

“Lio…” He didn’t know what else to say, “Can I see him? Is he okay?” 

What happened? Why did he do that? What was going on? Looking at Aina for answers, she seemed just as lost and confused as he was. 

“I’m sorry but you can’t see him until the whole situation’s been assessed. You’re free to wait in the lobby until then.” 

Galo slumped to the floor, “Why would he do that? It’s probably all my fault. I shouldn’t have brought him to the lake… I shouldn’t have left him there. This is all my doing.” He was crushed. 

“Hey… I’m sure that’s not it. The only thing we can do is wait for someone to tell us we can see him. Galo…” She placed a hand on his shoulder and helped him up, walking over to a small secluded section in the waiting room. Saying nothing to him, she held him close comforting him as he sobbed. 

Time crept by slowly, but the doctor eventually came out to the lobby to tell the pair that Lio had woken up and could be seen for a few moments. Being led back to the room, Galo tried to put on a strong expression but failed miserably. 

“I’ll wait out here, I think it should be only you that should be going in.” Aina smiled softly at him, squeezing his hand for encouragement before he disappeared through the doorway. 

The smell of disinfectant permeated through everything in the room, the air felt stale, it was quiet aside from the beeping of the monitors that were keeping track of Lio’s vitals. Looking down, Galo saw him in the bed bandaged up and bruised. His leg was in a cast.  
Unable to keep it together anymore, he rushed to the side of the other man, kneeling on the floor. “Lio… what happened?”

Unsure of it being a hallucination like the few times before, he hesitated to answer the question he had been asked. Instead, he just turned his head away. 

“Lio… I’m here.” Galo gently touched his hand. “It’s me, Galo.”

Hearing his name being spoken again, he turned to see the hallucination wasn’t a hallucination this time. He was really here this time. It hurt to speak, his throat was still raw from crying earlier and he could only let out a soft grunt as a response. 

“I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean for this to happen. Please… forgive me.” Galo started to cry again. “I just wasn’t thinking. It was wrong for me to leave you alone. It was wrong of me to make you think we should part ways.” 

His fault? He was taking all of this upon himself? “I… idiot. You didn’t do anything. This had nothing to do with you.” His voice was hoarse. It hurt to speak, but he mentally urged himself to continue. “This… was all my doing. I let it overcome me. I was weak.”

“Lio…”

“I didn’t mean for this to happen. I don’t remember much… I just remembered reading your message and after that everything was blank. The thoughts caught up to me. I gave in.” He gingerly moved a hand and placed it on Galo’s and drifted off to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Gave in? What did that even mean? Galo didn’t even want to think about what that even meant at the moment, all he wanted to do was spend as much time as he could with Lio. He sat there and zoned out until he felt something touching his hand.  
  


“Lio?”

The smaller man didn’t respond.

Worried, Galo looked up hoping nothing was wrong and instead saw the other man asleep with his hand on Galo’s. Even asleep he looked sad.

“What happened… I hope it wasn’t because of what happened at the lake.” The firefighter sighed and got up placing Lio’s hand on his chest. “I’ll be back tomorrow. You need your rest. I promise you this time that I’m not going anywhere.”

He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes again. Not wanting to possibly disturb the sleeping man, Galo turned around and walked out of the room making sure to tell the on-duty nurse that he was asleep and to just try to let him rest.  
Aina was still in the lobby sitting where Galo had left her to go see Lio. Her face was painted with a mixture of exhaustion and worry.

“What happened?” She got up from her seat and walked towards the door with Galo.

Unsure of what to say, he just shrugged his shoulders in response. “To be honest with you… it’s not really something I’d like to talk about right now. A lot has happened, and I just want to go home and go to sleep. Everything feels like a dream and I just want it to end.” His depression was crawling back in full force.

“I understand. Get on, I’ll take you home.”

“Thank you.” He climbed onto the back of Aina’s bike, waiting for her to start it up.

“For?”

“Just everything.”

“Galo… that’s probably one of the vaguest answers you’ve given me in a while. But, you’re welcome? I don’t know what all I’ve done for you but you’re very welcome.”

The ride back to Galo’s apartment was a silent one, he was too lost in thought to try to have a conversation with his friend like they usually did whenever they were out on the bike. He tried his best to shut everything out and ignore what had happened. The guilt was starting to eat him alive. The short ride felt like an eternity, but they eventually got to the apartment. He got off of the bike and said good night to Aina before disappearing through the door to the complex to get to his apartment.  
Once inside, everything he had been keeping back had finally come out. As soon as his feet made it through the threshold, Galo lost it. A gut-wrenching sob crept up through his throat as he remembered how Lio looked. Bruises, broken bones, and all. It was the last thing that he had expected to see that night.

“When I left him the other day… he seemed fine. He looked okay… he… he just was upset.” The guilt was coming back to him in strong waves. “I just…” He sighed making his way back to the bedroom.

 _I gave in_.

The phrase played over and over in Galo’s mind. It was loud and he couldn’t drown it out.

_I gave in._

“What… what did you give in to? I need to know.” He sat on the edge of the bed pleading with the voice repeating the sentence in his head. “Was this my fault? Did I cause this? I’m sorry… I didn’t know. I’m sorry for leaving you alone like that. It was wrong of me to do. Please… I just want to sleep.”

Giving up, Galo laid down and pulled the covers over his head much like a child did when they were hiding from the monster under their bed. But this time, the monster resided in his thoughts and had no hint of relenting its torment.

_My mind went blank and I gave in._

The next few hours passed slowly as he waited for his body to give in and just fall asleep. Galo was exhausted, mentally and physically. Sure, he had had his fair share of challenging things to deal with before, but this felt like it was far greater that those other situations.  
Sleep wasn’t going to come so easily; his mind was too loud going over everything that had happened in the past few days. He didn’t want to fight his exhaustion, in fact, he wanted the exact opposite. All the man wanted was to just sleep, even if it was for a little bit. Galo laid in bed staring at the ceiling trying everything he could to get to sleep quickly. Counting sheep, just closing his eyes, meditation… anything, and it just didn’t work. Seconds melted into minutes, minutes into hours… hours just compounded onto hours of sleepless musing. He didn’t know how long he had been laying there, but he finally admitted defeat and got up out of bed to wander out into the kitchen to find something to eat and maybe make use of the coffee pot that sat on his counter. If he wasn’t going to sleep, he figured he had to stave off the exhaustion somehow.  
As he was shuffling through his cupboards, he realized that there really wasn’t anything that sounded good to him as far as food went and even made the discovery that he didn’t even have any coffee available to him. A quick glance at the clock revealed that it was already 6:30 in the morning- an acceptable time to wander out into the city to find something open serving breakfast.

Sighing heavily, he pulled a jacket on and grabbed his phone and keys before walking out of the door. The air was cool and deterred him from riding the bike anywhere.  
  


“I guess it works out in my favor… it never hurt to walk around ever so often. Besides, everyone’s always said that there wasn’t anything like a walk to help clear the mind.” He mumbled to himself trying to justify the decision to leave the bike in its parking spot. The slight chill in the wind drove him to pull the hood over his head. “Let’s hope there’s something open… It’s been far too long since I’ve been up and about at this hour.”

It didn’t take Galo too long to get to downtown Promepolis, the walk from the apartment was shorter than he had expected, far closer than the distance from his place to the station. The sidewalks were barren and seemed uninviting and not promising for giving at least a hint of somewhere to eat. He couldn’t lie, he was feeling a bit frustrated about not really seeing anything that caught his eye. For a split second, the idea of just making his way to the station for breakfast crossed his mind, there had to be at least _someone_ awake at this hour and even if there wasn’t, there was always coffee available due to Remi having a weird obsession with always needing a pot of coffee available for consumption.

“No… that would just be pitiful.” He internally battled with the idea unaware that his body was acting on autopilot and taking him further into the city towards the hospital. His mind knew what needed to be done, he was just painfully unaware of it.  
“Heh, could you imagine… Remi sitting there enjoying a cup of coffee doing whatever it is that he does this early in the morning. I swear the man never sleeps.” Galo laughed to himself, continuing to imagine the encounter. “Hey, Remi. I’m not scheduled for today but nothing in the apartment sounded good to me for breakfast, so I came here to find something to eat.” He giggled to himself picturing the look on Remi’s face once he realized his now quiet time in the morning had been interrupted by him. He continued to walk down the sidewalk blissfully unaware, Galo finally had made it to the hospital walking straight through the doors still talking to himself.

A nurse noticed him pacing in front of the reception desk and tried to get his attention, “Can I help you? Sir? Hello? Are you okay?” Galo didn’t answer her. “Sir… can you hear me?”

 _Sir? Can you hear me?_ The voice floated through the air, seeming to dance around until it hit Galo’s ears. Taking a few moments to process what he had just heard, he stared blankly at the worried nurse standing in front of him at the desk. _Are you okay? Can I help you?_ Finally, he had registered that someone had been calling out to him.

“Mmm?” He smiled weakly, embarrassed that he had been zoned out for so long. “Oh… yeah, sorry. I’m fine.” Galo looked around, recognizing that he was in the same lobby that he was just in a few hours ago. “How did I end up here?” He laughed weakly. The nurse on the other hand didn’t seem to find it funny.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” She studied him closely noting that Galo looked pale.

“Positive.”

The nurse squinted at his response, “Right. You just came into a hospital spaced out, pale as a ghost and talking to yourself. You’re right. Perfectly fine.”

“I promise you, I’m okay. I’m just…” He felt his knees go weak underneath him and start to buckle. The exhaustion had finally caught up to him and he was paying for it now.

The exact thing that she was anticipating happening, happened. Galo collapsed in front of her.


	9. Chapter 9

“Mr. Fotia? Are you awake?”

Lio woke up to a female’s soft voice pulling him out of a semi-sedated slumber, the smell of disinfectant burned his nostrils and the bright lights above him assaulted his eyes, temporarily blinding him.

“I have to check your vitals again and give you another dose of your pain killers. I’m sorry for waking you up.” The nurse stood at the edge of his bed, smiling sweetly.

“I… yeah, I’m awake.” He tried to sit up a little more but was stopped from the aches and pains that shot through his body whenever he moved. “I’m glad you’re here, actually. I can barely move.” He laughed softly trying to make light of the situation that he had ended up in.

The nurse returned the laugh and gently moved his arm to take a blood pressure reading, “Aside from all of… this… how are you feeling?”

“Like a million bucks.” He paused for a few moments, hearing his stomach growling. “Well, maybe a little hungry, too.”

Writing down the information in his chart, the nurse nodded and let him know that breakfast should be coming soon. Before leaving, she told him her name and gave him a tentative run down of all that was going to happen that day.

Hearing all that he was going to have to do left him with a pit in his stomach. The one thing that brought him the most dread was the fact of having to speak to someone about what had happened and what caused him to attempt suicide. It wasn’t something that he really wanted to talk about. In a perfect world, he would rather just be told to not do it again and sent back home with directions to take his whatever medicine he was being given and to just take it easy for a few days. He just wanted to put it all behind him, the guilt for even jumping was already eating him alive.  
Trying to stay distracted and not dwell on what was to come, he reached out for his phone to check to see if he had missed any messages. There was nothing and he needed to remedy that. Opening his texts, Lio quickly drafted something out to send to the guys back home asking them to bring him some clothes and maybe something better to eat in anticipation that the hospital breakfast was going to be subpar at best. After sending the request he stared at the screen of messages from his various contacts, the pit in his stomach grew heavier seeing the messages from Galo again.

 _That’s not really something that I want to deal with either._ His finger hovered over the delete conversation prompt, but he just couldn’t bring himself to get rid of it suddenly remembering that Galo had somehow come and visited him the night before. _How do I even know that it was actually him and not a medically induced hallucination? There’s no possible way for him to have known what had happened._ The doubts were coming back again in full force. _Guilt is a funny thing, huh?_  
Already annoyed with the day Lio put the phone in his lap and waited for his meal. It wasn’t long before the nurse from earlier was back with a tray that smelled of artificial eggs and burnt toast.

“Fantastic. Just what I needed.” He smiled trying to hide the disappointment of already knowing the food was going to be bad. Lio had always heard rumors of hospital food being the worst. As soon as he was sure that she had left the room and wasn’t coming back, the smile left his face as he uncovered the tray revealing scrambled eggs, toast with very minimal butter, and three slices of barely cooked bacon. Breakfast was shaping up to be the disappointment that he had anticipated and was glad that he thought ahead and asked the guys to bring him something better. Knowing that he had to eat at least a little bit of his food to make sure the medicine that he was given didn’t make him nauseated, he picked up the stale bread that was passed off as toast and took a small bite, chewing it gingerly.

While trying to stomach the last bit of the slice, Lio heard a startling scream come from down the hall causing him to jump and drop what remained of his breakfast on the floor. “Seems like I’m not the only one disappointed at the sight of this gruel.” He laughed at his own joke and tried to listen more carefully to see if there was any follow up to the noise. Sure enough, the sound of shoes tapping quickly against the floor filled the hallway as various staff members ran towards the possible incident in progress.

“Where am I and how did I get here?” The voice called out again sounding very alarmed. “What’s going on here?”

Listening closer, the voice sounded familiar to Lio, but he couldn’t quite place who it belonged to. At this point he was just happy to have at least some sort of entertainment to distract him from his earlier worries.

“Hello? Is anyone gonna answer me?”

There were a few moments of silence before a staff member answered the man, “Mr. Thymos, you’re awake. You passed out earlier in the lobby. You were suffering from dehydration and exhaustion. Please calm down.”

 _Thymos is here? This should be interesting._ Lio continued to listen hanging onto every word of the nee developments unfolding before him.

“Exhaustion? I feel fine.”

He smacked his face in response. Just how dense was this man and he called himself a first responder? Lio wanted badly to call back in response but decided to do something a little better. Grabbing his phone from his lap, he opened his messages and texted Galo almost giddy waiting for a response be it through text or just him generally shouting through the hallways. “Of course, you’re not exhausted anymore, and you feel fine. You slept it off, idiot.”


	10. Chapter 10

“I feel fine now! Can I please go home? I have stuff I need to do…” Galo protested to the nurse standing in his doorway. “I have someone I need to see.”

“Mr. Thymos, no. You need to stay here for a few more hours. We need to make sure you get your fluids back up to where they need to be.”

“Please? I promise I’ll drink only water today… I need to go please…” He tried to plead his case, but it was falling on deaf ears.

Knowing that he was fighting a losing battle, the nurse pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed not knowing what else he could even say to convince the firefighter to stay. “Why is it that anyone with at least some sort of medical qualifications are the hardest patients? I don’t get paid enough to do this.”

Feeling his pocket vibrate, Galo pulled his phone out to see he had a text from Lio. His attention immediately was taken away from the nurse complaining about him. Reading the message, he laughed softly, and looked back up at the nurse, “On second thought, I guess I can stay. Things have a funny way of working out, right?”

The nurse just stared at him in disbelief, “You have got to be kidding me. The one day I’m given the day shift, and this is what I deal with.”

Before he could even finish his thoughts, Galo had gotten up out of bed and was attempting to wander out of his room. Unaware of the IV in his arm, he pulled the stand behind him haphazardly causing it to clank around and bump into the bed numerous times. “Hey, is it okay if I go for a walk or something?”

Blocking the door, the nurse crossed his arms and frowned, “No. Get back in bed.”

“Please? I promise you that if you let me leave for a little bit I’ll behave and do whatever it is that you need me to do…” Galo tried to plead his case. “I’m not even leaving the building itself… I know what room I need to go to. There’s someone I need to see.”

“No. It’s not even visiting hours. Get back in bed.”

“That argument is stupid, and you know it. I’m not even a visitor… I’m a patient here.” He got quiet and smirked at the man in the doorway. “You said it yourself.”

Not wanting to continue the unnecessary argument further than it had already progressed, the nurse gave up and moved out of the way, “Fine, but you have an hour. If you’re not back here by then I’m personally coming to get you myself and making sure you stay in that damn bed until you get discharged. What room are you even going to?”  
Before he could even get an answer, Galo was already halfway down the hallway heading to where he wanted to go.

“Lio Fotia’s room!” He called back over his shoulder and waved at the nurse before disappearing around the corner.

Galo only slightly remembered where Lio’s room was but didn’t know what the room number was anymore. Wanting to avoid another nurse confrontation, he decided to just call the other man quickly to figure out where he was. Before he could even get a chance to dial the number, he received a text with the room number.

Within minutes he was there, standing in the doorway looking at a stunned Lio.

“What did you do, run here? Wait, don’t even answer that question, I already know the answer to that. You’re already clearly out of breath. You’re exhausted again, idiot Thymos.”

“It’s nice to see you too, Lio.” Galo smiled and ambled slowly into the room sitting down in the same chair he was in the previous night.

The other man didn’t seem like he wanted to answer right away, he seemed more concerned as to why Galo was even there in the first place, especially in the state that he was in. He wanted to ask about what happened but has a small fear of what the answer could possibly be. Unsure on how to even go about even approaching the subject was a foreign concept to him. Luckily enough, Galo was the one to break the silence and opened the opportunity for furthering the conversation on.

“How are you feeling?” His mood had taken a complete turn from the chipper tones he had earlier.

“H-how am I feeling?” The question took Lio by surprise, he wasn’t expecting Galo to seem concerned about him. He fell silent for a few moments contemplating how to answer the question. “I’m… I honestly don’t think I can fully answer that. A lot has happened in a small amount of time. There are so many situations that can be addressed by answering that question. It’s not really fair to ask something that open ended.”

His answer didn’t seem to be the most accepted, but Galo went with it anyways and tried a better approach to the previous question, “I apologize. How about we start from the present? How are you feeling? Like, do you need anything? Are you hurting? Is there anything I can get you?” His tone started to get more and more hurried, his attempt at trying to hide his worry was faltering quickly.

“Oh, _that_. I’m okay for now, the shift nurse came in and gave me something earlier. I think it’s finally kicking in. Though, I can admit that I’m pretty hungry right now, but the guys will be here soon hopefully with something.”

“Well I can see why… your food seems to be on the floor. How did that even happen?” Galo leaned forward and picked up the tray revealing a mess of breakfast foods on the floor. “Was it really that bad?”

He leaned over the side of the bed and saw the sorry state of his food and laughed, “It’s no loss to me, it wasn’t the best. Besides… a certain someone somehow managed to fuck it up and didn’t even intend to. It was horrible anyways, so I have to thank them for it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Galo pouted slightly realizing that he was the one that supposedly ruined the meal. “How did I have anything to do with that?” He seemed hurt by the comment.

 _Fuck. I need to get myself out of this._ Lio cleared his throat and tried to think of a way to remedy the situation.  
“No, no I didn’t mean it like that. It was kinda funny to me. I mean, hearing you yell out about something in this hellhole was the last thing I expected.” He cleared his throat getting ready to make an impression of the earlier conversation he overheard, “Exhaustion? But I feel fine.” He laughed again, “Listen, I didn’t mean to offend you if I did… I just… like I said, you really are the last person I would expect to be here, too.”

Galo laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head, “Y-yeah… it wasn’t my intention. But here we are, right?”

“Wasn’t your intention? Then why the hell are you here?”

Unsure of how to approach the question, the firefighter got quiet while debating on whether to tell him the truth or not. “It’s ah… it’s a long story.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but right now I seem to have all the time in the world.” Lio motioned to himself laying in the bed, “There’s nothing here to do really…” Suddenly, his voice got really quiet, “I wouldn’t mind listening.”

“What was that? I couldn’t quite hear the last bit that you said.”

  
“I could use the entertainment.”


	11. Chapter 11

_I could use the entertainment._

The statement caused hundreds of thoughts to dance around in his mind. Galo wasn’t sure about where he should even start. Entertainment? What part of it could even be considered entertaining anyways? _  
What do I even say? Yeah, I was up all night because I saw you here last night and then I couldn’t sleep because of the crushing rock known as guilt was sitting on my chest so I just laid around in bed until I got hungry and bored and decided to leave to look for something to eat and then just ended up here instead and ended up passing out finally?_

“Thymos… it’s not that hard of a topic.” Lio had caught onto Galo’s silence. “Did so much stuff happen that you can’t even think of where to start?”

He hit the nail right on the head. Galo wanted to tell the truth, but he just didn’t know where to start… so he decided to just go with a slight half-truth, leaving out the other things that lead up to him ended up as a patient that day.  
“I couldn’t sleep last night, and I was hungry, so I left to find something to eat but somehow I ended up here on autopilot. Then I guess my exhaustion caught up with me and I passed out in front of the reception desk… and here we are.” He hoped Lio would take the story.

It didn’t really add up, but Lio took the explanation for what it was. He counted his blessings to at least even get that much out of Galo on account of how much he had probably hurt him at the lake. In all honesty, he was glad that he was even getting the chance to even speak to Galo again.

“Were you… worried about me or something?” Lio asked cautiously.

The question caught Galo off guard, “I… uh…”

“Spit it out, you were worried about me, weren’t you?” He teased.

Galo remained silent for a bit before responding, “Actually, yeah…” He looked at the floor in embarrassment. “I just… after last night… I got a sudden call that something happened and came here and saw you like _this_.” He motioned to the cast and bruises that were scattered on his visible skin.  
Swallowing his feelings, Galo sighed and continued, “You said some pretty concerning things last night, too.”

Lio didn’t answer, he just sat there staring at Galo patiently waiting for him to continue.

“So, yeah, I guess you could say I was worried about you.”

The statement took Lio by surprise. He didn’t know how to answer and felt the embarrassment rushing back. He tried to suppress it but was unlucky and ended up getting frustrated instead. “I don’t understand you, Thymos. I don’t understand you at all. Just two days ago, you decided we should never speak or see each other again and yet here you are in front of me saying you’re here because you’re worried about me. Make up your fucking mind.”

“Lio…”

“Don’t look at me with that face. That same stupid expression you gave me that day… I can’t fucking take it.”

Galo remained quiet this time, unsure of what to do. Deciding against responding, he let Lio continue hoping that it would all blow over. He just sat there listening to the blonde vent angrily almost missing the tears that were welling up in his eyes.

“Why you? Why is it you? Why me? What did I do to have you sit here and worry about me? After all that I did to you… you really are an idiot...” It was all coming out now, everything he was holding back was finally coming to fruition.

“I’m here because…”

“Because you want to relish in my failure?”

“No.”

“Then what is it? Thymos? Why are you here? Why do you worry about me this much?”

Galo couldn’t take it anymore, gripping his knees and closing his eyes, he yelled back at the bedridden man, “Because I _care_ about you. I was worried about you, because I care about you Lio. I came here last night as soon as I heard from someone that you were here.”

The sudden confession caught Lio off guard and he didn’t know how to respond. He just sat there and stared at Galo trying to think of something to say but kept coming up blank. There wasn’t anything he could say to that anymore. Instead of words, a sudden wave of relief washed over him. It was comforting to know that his worst hidden fear wasn’t true, and Galo didn’t hate him at all. But as soon as he felt the comfort and ease, the guilt from everything started to bubble up and fight for the spotlight. He felt like he couldn’t look him in the eyes anymore, Galo was too forgiving.

“I… can’t believe it.” He finally broke the silence. “I also just don’t understand it… how can you just be so _nice_ to me and say that you care about me? Even knowing everything that happened between us, you mean to tell me that you still care about me?”

“What do you mean, Lio?”

“I was horrible to you. I yelled at you over trivial things, I practically wrote you off that night and the next day after I just lost it on you. I said so many mean things to you.”

“Oh that?” Galo looked up at the ceiling and focused on a light that was flickering in the corner formulating how to approach the subject. “I mean, you really did hurt me that night with some of the things you said. It fucked with me for a good bit, yeah and I’m not going to lie it still fucks with me a bit _still_ but, I really can’t hold that against you.” He smiled softly. “I forgive you, Lio Fotia.”

 _Forgive me?_ He focused on the phrase trying to figure out as to why he already seemed to deserve forgiveness already. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t think of a valid excuse to accept that fact.

“You’re not serious, are you? I really don’t think that’s something you should be forgiving so quickly.”

Galo nodded in response, “No. I’m serious. That night after everything that happened, I talked to someone about what happened, and they opened my eyes to the bigger picture of what may have been going on.”

“And what was that?” His voice had a hint of frustration hidden inside the words. “What was the conclusion you two just so happened to come to?” Seeing Galo’s reaction to the inflections in his voice, he reeled back. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to come off that way. But, honestly, what did you two suddenly decide?”

Galo remained silent for a few moments before answering, “That you’ve just been through a lot in the past few weeks and a lot has changed for you.”

“Go on.”

“I understand how it feels to an extent. I didn’t lose as much as you did… but there’s a few new things that I need to get used to as well. For the lack of a better term, we’re both mourning things. It’s only understandable for tensions to be high like they are.”

Mourning. Grieving. It just like what Meis and Gueria had told him. Hearing someone else that wasn’t them say that to him made Lio think it was a little bit more realistic. Before he could answer, a figure appeared in the doorway cutting off any possibility of furthering the conversation.

“Mr. Thymos, time’s up.”

“Time’s up?” Lio stared at the frustrated nurse in the doorway.

“His hour parading around is up, he knows what he has to do now.”

The annoyance was clear in his tone. It was evident that Galo had somehow managed to get under his skin. Not wanting to poke the sleeping bear further, Lio sighed and glanced over to Galo who was grimacing in anticipation of what was to possibly come if he didn’t start moving now.

“Galo, we can continue this later. There’s some stuff I need to take of soon too, I believe.” He chuckled slightly, “I’m not going anywhere for a while.”

Without an answer, the firefighter got up from his seat allowing the nurse to escort him back to his room. He glanced over his shoulder one last time at Lio and smiled before disappearing out of his line of sight.


	12. Chapter 12

The rest of the morning seemed to drag on, Galo finished what he had to in order to be cleared for discharge and was sent home with directions to not push it for a few days and to just relax while Lio was sent to talk to a psychiatrist about what had happened the night before. It was taxing and he didn’t feel like talking about it to a stranger but knew he had to do it. There was just something about letting someone in on intimate details that put him off about opening up to someone he didn’t know. The hour of conversation felt like an eternity to him as his mind was somewhere else focusing on the chance to talk to Galo again and continuing their conversation. After it was all said and done, he went back to his room under the guise of resting but was surprised to see Galo sitting there in the chair again waiting for him.

“I was wondering when you’d be back.” The blue-haired man smiled at the shorter blonde slowly making his way back into the room. “Let me help.”

“I’m fine.” Lio protested, watching Galo get up from his seat.

“Please, let me help?”

“F…” Before he could even utter out an answer Galo picked him up to set him back into the bed triggering all the blood to rush to his cheeks.

“Are you comfortable? Do I need to get you anything?”

“No… I’m okay. You really didn’t need to go and do all of that, you know.” Lio felt his cheeks continue to burn in increasing intensity.

“You’re right. I didn’t but I did it anyways…” Galo anxiously rubbed the back of his head and looked away trying to avoid eye contact hoping Lio wouldn’t catch the fact that he was trying to hide a slight blush.

“Well, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. How was everything after I was forcibly removed?”

“Forcibly removed? What did you even do to warrant that even happening?” The blonde avoided the question.

Catching onto what was going on, Galo gently pressed again. “I’ll tell you if you tell me.”

Not in the mood for an argument, Lio decided to just tell the man what he wanted to know. “You left and I had to go talk to someone about what I did and what caused it to happen. I didn’t enjoy it at all.” His voice started to trail off as he continued, “But I’m glad you’re here because I was told to talk about it.” Hoping Galo didn’t hear him he looked out of the window watching the breeze dance in the trees outside.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He heard him.

“I… no. Not necessarily but…”

“But?”

“It’s only fair to you that I do. I owe you quite a bit of an explanation and apology of sorts for everything that’s happened.” Even just admitting that much made Lio feel like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He wanted to put all of this behind him and hoped Galo wanted to do the same hoping it would help them somehow grow closer.

“I understand.” Galo nodded, unsure of what else to say. He was appreciative that he was finally going to get an answer but was sort of scared of what he was probably going to hear. “Start whenever you feel comfortable.”

 _Start whenever you feel comfortable._ Sure, the phrase was easy to hear but it was exponentially harder to execute. Seeing as what he had to talk about, it didn’t feel like he’d ever be comfortable with saying anything, but it had to be done. Nothing was going to come out of this if he just continued to stay silent.  
Swallowing his fears, Lio cleared his throat and looked into Galo’s eyes, “First off… I want to apologize to you. I want to tell you I’m sorry for how I treated you that night and I want to say sorry for everything that I said to you. The fact of just seeing you here next to me without knowing what exactly happened kinda shows me that I was wrong in what I said. You _do_ care about people. I was just upset.”

Galo remained quiet allowing him to continue.

“Like you said earlier, you and I are both mourning the loss of something that was special to us. I guess it just hit me extremely hard. After losing the Promare and no longer being a burnish, I’ve just sort of lost all sense of identity. I wasn’t angry at you; I was angry at _myself_. It wasn’t fair of me to be rude to you like that.” He sighed heavily, “When you showed me the thing you do with venting and allowed me to try it too, it gave me a short period of peace. And I have to say, the time I _did_ spend with you like that, I enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed your company. There just seemed to be nothing to worry about.”

“Aside from the fact that I forgot to make sure we had—”

“Enough gas in the tank? Yeah.” Lio laughed softly completing Galo’s sentence. “To be completely honest with you, I had a feeling something like that would happen. Don’t take this the wrong way, but with you there’s no telling what might accidentally go wrong with your scatterbrain sometimes.”

“No, I agree. I need to pay attention to things more. I think it was just because I was so excited to see you again that I just forgot. Y’know?”

The blatant admission of Galo being excited and looking forward to seeing him caused Lio to blush a bit. “You were excited? To see me?”

“Well, yeah, why wouldn’t I be? I felt like we had a cool thing going on after everything that happened.” Realizing what he had said caused Galo to blush in response. “You really can’t like save all of humanity and the world and not expect to look forward to seeing your partner again.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Lio went quiet for a few seconds, “We’re getting off topic. Anyways, I’m not going to lie… I know I hurt you with the things I said and did, but Galo you hurt me too a bit. When you decided that we were going to just part ways and not say anything anymore, that kind of tore me up.”

“I realize that now and I’m sincerely sorry for doing that. At the time it seemed like the best thing to do. I maybe should’ve added more onto it and said to just have our own space for a couple days. It was really cruel of me to do that to you and honestly, it tore me up as well after I realized what I had done. Can you forgive me for that?”

“I forgive you, but I can’t tell you that it was okay because it wasn’t. I don’t want to make it seem like I’m guilting you here, that’s the last thing I want to do, but leaving someone alone like that when they’re in such a state like I was and still am a bit wasn’t the best course of action to take.”

Galo looked at the ground like a child who had been scolded for breaking the family’s prized heirloom, “I apologize. I really do.” He didn’t know what else to say, he only felt the extreme guilt from having it pointed out to him.

“Listen, it’s not okay but I forgive you as well. Taking a step back and looking at it now, we were only trying to look out for one another. True, we could’ve had better communication with the situation, but I don’t think that was even possible with what was going on. I was too upset and mentally shut down and you were just kind of too sad to process things as you should’ve been. If I were in your position hearing the things that you heard I’d feel the same way.”

The blue-haired man smiled weakly hearing that he too was forgiven. It didn’t fix all of the guilt and cause it to go away, but it did help it to calm down just a little bit. “Thank you. I’m glad that we’ve been able to sit down and talk about this stuff.” Galo looked like he wanted to say more but stopped himself a bit afraid of what might happen.

“Me too. Thank you for being so understanding, Galo.” Lio smiled back while inadvertently leaning over to put his hand on Galo’s, but quickly pulling back realizing what he was doing.

“You don’t have to thank me. But, you’re welcome Lio.” He was silent again.

“Is there something on your mind? You’ve had that same expression on your face for a while. I’m a bit concerned. You have every right to talk as well just as I did. I don’t want there to be anything left unaddressed between us.”

The firefighter knew what he wanted to ask but he didn’t want to seem insensitive to the topic. He wanted to know what happened to Lio and what caused him to end up in the hospital in the state he was in. It just didn’t seem right to him.  
“I mean… yeah, I do want to ask you something, but I just don’t think it’s something I should be even allowed to ask, if that makes sense.”

The vague answer confused Lio. What he wanted to ask could be about anything and the fact that he mentioned it as being a topic that he himself wasn’t sure if it was okay to talk about just confused him even more.

“What do you mean?” He stared at Galo hoping to get some sort of clarification on what he was talking about.

The man in the chair sat there awkwardly trying to figure out a way to formulate what he wanted to ask. He didn’t want to cross any lines and run the risk of upsetting Lio again, but he just really wanted to know what had exactly happened. The guilt of him potentially being the cause of his stay in the hospital was eating away at him.  
  


“Uh… hm. You don’t… you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but what exactly happened? What happened that caused you to end up in the hospital looking like this?” As soon as he voiced his question, Galo immediately felt a wave of regret wash over him. He saw the way Lio seemed to shift uncomfortably in the bed and wished he had never said anything. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No… it’s okay. I spoke to someone about this earlier and they kinda told me that the best way to maybe work through it is to talk about it more and more. I don’t mind telling you, it’s just a bit difficult to admit what happened.”

“Take your time.” Galo smiled softly and waited patiently for Lio to find his bearings.

He cleared his throat and looked at Galo directly, “Before I even say anything, promise me you won’t take anything I’m about to say personally. This is all a consequence of what I did, you have nothing to do with this. If you even start to think about protesting and trying to apologize, I’ll stop talking. Do you understand?”

Stunned, Galo nodded his head in response, “I understand.”

“Alright.” Lio sighed. “After the mishap that happened between us, Meis and Guiera took me home. Everything seemed fine but I just still felt really angry about everything. I didn’t know what was going on. I don’t even know _what_ I was angry about. I do know that I was angry with myself for how I treated you, but I was also angry and hurt with how you treated _me_. The three of us had a conversation about things and how I was feeling and what might have been causing me to feel the way I felt. We all mutually decided that it was grief. The three of us were all going through it, but it seemed to be hitting me harder than them. It felt nice to finally have an answer for everything but something still felt off.”

“Felt off? What do you mean?” Galo looked at Lio with a puzzled look. He got it, but he didn’t _get_ it.

“I just still felt immensely guilty. I also thought that what we had or could have had was gone. I thought you honestly wouldn’t want to see me anymore after what happened. Then I got your message saying that you wanted to talk or something. After that, I don’t remember much. I can only really recall the feeling of the wind rushing past me, hitting something hard, then like… waking up here sore as fuck.”

“Lio…” The man stared at him with teary eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. This wasn’t your doing. This was something I did on my own.”

“Still, though… I’m sorry.” It was all he could think about saying. Nothing else ran through his mind.

“I’m okay now. I have at least some answers. That’s enough for me. This isn’t going to be something that gets better in a day. Both physically and mentally.”

The blue-haired man nodded, “I understand. Thank you for telling me.”

Lio nodded and smiled, “Thank you for listening to me.”

The two men sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes before Galo opened his mouth again finally catching onto something that the smaller man had said earlier. He mulled around the idea of saying something about it or not. Unfortunately, Lio had caught him making faces and silently having a conversation with himself.

“What are you going on about over there?”

“Wh-what? Nothing.” He looked around flustered.

“Nothing? Okay then.” Lio let it go figuring Galo would mention what he was thinking about when he was ready.

Panicking, Galo abruptly got up out of his chair and walked towards the door, “I… I’m thirsty… so I’m going to grab something to drink… do you want anything?” He had to get out of there and fast before he probably asked something that he would regret.

“I’m fine.” Lio stared back at him laughing under his breath watching Galo crumble under his own awkwardness.

“O…k… I’ll be back… I won’t be too long…” He walked out of the room and down the hall until he made it around the corner and burst into a small jog to get out of the building.

Once he was sure that he was a good distance away from the hospital, Galo pulled out his phone and quickly dialed Aina hoping she would pick up. He really wanted to talk about what he had just heard and registered from Lio. The phone rang a few times before the familiar female voice connected on the other line.

“Hello?” She sounded distracted.

“Aina? Are you busy?”

“Sort of… why? Did something happen?” Her tone immediately grew worried.

“Well… yes and no…”

“Galo, that’s extremely vague and you know it. I can’t help if I don’t know what happened.”

He sighed and tried to find the best possible way to word what he had heard earlier, “I’ve been visiting with Lio and—”

“Oh~?” Her voice lilted with the question, Aina knew exactly what was happening. “Did something happen?”

“We’ve been… talking a bit about everything that happened over the past few days. But, he said something that I don’t think he realized what was actually said.”

“Spit it out already!” She was starting to grow impatient.

“Alright, alright. He said something about him apparently thinking about what we had or apparently _could_ of had? Do you have any idea as to what that might mean?”

There was a few moments of silence on the other line before a sudden fit of laughter, “Galo, sweetie, it’s not that deep. You’re probably reading too much into it. I can’t give you all the answers. This is something you have to figure out _on your own_. Remember what I said earlier? Just let things happen. This might unfurl in front of you on its own. I wish I could talk more, but I have to go. I hope things go well for you.”

And just like that, the phone call was over. He was frustrated that it didn’t help much, but there really wasn’t anything that Galo could do about that. Before he could even stop to remember to grab a drink from a nearby vending machine, the firefighter walked back into the building determined to get to the bottom of what Lio was hinting at. Galo wanted to get to the bottom of it once and for all. The fact that everything felt that it was up in the air once again started to slowly mess with his head.

“I might just be looking into this too much. What I think he could mean probably isn’t that instance at all. Maybe he just thinks of me as a friend and is happy that we were able to work together back when everything happened.” He muttered to himself wandering aimlessly down the hall back to Lio’s room.  
Looking up from the floor he saw the doorway in the distance and felt his body start to shake with nervousness. He desperately wanted to know but just didn’t know how to even approach the subject.

“Just let it happen… let it happen…” He said the mantra quietly to himself outside of Lio’s room.

“Galo? Is that you?”

Hearing Lio’s voice caused a chill to run down his spine, causing him to freeze. Panicking, Galo choked out a response, “Ah.., y-yeah… I’m here. Sorry.” Urging his feet to move, he walked into the room rubbing the back of his head in an awkward manner.

“Is everything okay? I thought you were going to get something to drink?” The blonde pointed out the fact that Galo had come back empty handed.

 _Fuck, I completely forgot._ Instead of saying anything the taller man just stood at the foot of the bed in a stunned silence just looking at his hands.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not really acting like yourself since you’ve come back. You’ve seemed very… lost in thought ever since you came back. Did something happen? Was it something that I said earlier? I know it’s probably a lot to take in… hell, _I’m_ still trying to process all that’s happened.”

 _Was it something that I said?_ The question stayed in his mind. Trying to formulate an answer, he sighed heavily and looked at Lio, “Actually… about that… yeah, there was something that you said that I can’t stop thinking about.” He stared at the ceiling as if he were watching the words he just said danced around like leaves in the wind.

“Oh…” Lio suddenly became quieter. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what? It’s nothing bad.” Galo quickly tried to amend what he was trying to say, “No, I was just wondering about something that you said earlier about… us.” A slight blush came to settle on his cheeks. “You said something like about what we had or could have had? What did you mean by that?”

As soon as it was mentioned, Lio’s face immediately turned a bright red. “I… said that? I don’t remember that.”

“You did. What did you mean?”

“I just…” He trailed off. “I guess it had to come out sometime or another.” He looked up at Galo and smiled softly. “I have to admit, I’ve sorta grown attached to you. After all that’s happened, I’ve seemed to have developed certain… feelings… for you.”

“Feelings?”

He sighed heavily, mildly annoyed that Galo wasn’t picking up on what he was hinting at. “What I’m trying to say is that I care about you a lot, Galo. I thought I had ruined everything with my selfish behavior that day you took us out.” He paused before continuing on, “I just never said anything because I was just scared.”

Suddenly hearing his name coming from Lio’s lips took him by surprise, more so than hearing the confession that followed. “Scared? What were you scared of?”

“It’s stupid.”

“No. I doubt it is. What scares you, Lio?”

“Please don’t make me say it…”

“Please? I promise I won’t laugh if that’s what you’re concerned about.”

The blonde looked away before answering, “I was scared and, I’m honestly _still_ scared that you’re going to see me in a different way and not feel the same even knowing my past and what I’ve done.”

“Lio…” Galo walked around to the side of the bed to where the recovering man was looking and got down on his knees to look at him in the eyes, “We all have skeletons in our closets. You were doing what you had to do to survive.” He reached out and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. “Sure, it’s true that I don’t agree with what you or Mad Burnish were doing but that’s in the past. I’m not going to hold your survival against you. It’d be wrong of me to just let that be the only factor to cloud my judgement.”

Hearing Galo’s response made a knot start to grow in Lio’s throat, “You’re too nice… you’re too kind. Galo…”

“Yes, Lio?”

“Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that. I’m just saying the truth.” He smiled and rubbed Lio’s back noticing the tears starting to well up in his eyes. “Listen, I want to thank you for telling me this. For telling me how you feel. To be honest with you, I’ve kind of felt the same way. I think that’s why I was so torn up after what happened between us. I care about you a lot.” The firefighter started to just let everything out. “When I heard about what happened, I was worried the whole way here. I was afraid that something worse had happened to you. I thought I wasn’t ever going to be able to tell you how I felt.”

“I’m sorry for being so selfish.” Lio weakly apologized trying to hold the tears back.

“It’s okay. I forgive you.” Galo got up from his knees and pulled Lio into a close embrace. “You don’t need to worry about these things anymore. I’m not going anywhere.”

 _I’m not going anywhere_. The words opened the floodgates and the tears started to stream down Lio’s cheeks. He tightened his grip on Galo’s shirt as he held him, for the first time in forever he felt fully accepted by someone who wasn’t a part of his gang. It felt nice and welcoming.

“Listen, Lio…” Galo broke the short moment of silence. “If you’d let me, I wouldn’t mind being by your side forever.”

He couldn’t respond, instead the tears just came in more numbers. “I don’t understand… why? Why are you being like this?”

The question took Galo by surprise, it was the last thing he expected to hear. “Being like what?”

“Being so nice to me. You know who I am and you know what I’ve done.” He slowly choked the answer out.

“Lio…” He pulled the blonde closer against his torso and smiled softly, “I already told you I forgave you. It’s alright. I promise.”

Lio pulled away and looked up to Galo who started to wipe his tears. Sniffling slightly he smiled weakly, “Thank you…” He fell silent before responding again, “I wouldn’t mind having you by my side either. For the first time that I can ever think of, you’re the first person to accept me for who I am outside of the gang.”

“I’m glad.” The firefighter smiled back and sat down on the edge of the bed. The pair didn’t say anything for a while, instead they just sat there enjoying each other’s company. Slowly, the two moved closer towards one another like a pair of awkward teenagers on the first date. Soon enough Lio was leaning on Galo’s arm causing the blue-haired man to look down at the sudden feeling of warmth to see Lio’s eyes were heavy.

“Tired?” Getting no response, he tried asking again, “Lio? Did you fall-?” Looking closer Galo got the answer to his question; the blonde was fast asleep against him. The expression on his face was one that Galo had never seen before. For the first time in forever, Lio seemed peaceful. Not wanting to disturb him, Galo shifted in the bed slightly, swinging his legs so he was almost laying down alongside Lio. Using his free arm, he slightly lifted the smaller man up and wrapped that arm around him, pulling him close.  
In this moment, everything felt right to Galo. Even though the two almost had completely parted ways, he was glad that he had taken the advice that was given. He was glad that he had just let everything happen.

“Let’s go back again sometime…”

The soft voice pulled Galo out of his thoughts, unsure of what he heard he looked at Lio who seemed to be muttering in his sleep.

“Go back again…”

It took Galo a few minutes to realize what he was talking about. Smiling softly, he leaned down and kissed Lio’s forehead before whispering, “I promise I’ll remember to fill the gas tank this time.” He giggled slightly at his own joke. “Honestly, I’d like that a lot. It’s a date.”

Though the past few days had been a whirlwind of events and emotions for the two men, neither one of them would’ve been able to ask for a better ending and even far better beginning to their new budding relationship.  
Lio had finally found the one thing he had been looking for since the beginning of his time with Mad Burnish. He had finally found someone who cared about him and took him for who he was; flaws and all. He had gotten answers to questions that had been burning in the back of his mind ever since he had lost the Promare. With the help of Galo, he had slowly started to accept himself for who he was now. Just as Galo found the same in Lio, someone to appreciate him for who he was. Goofiness and all. No longer lonely, they find had someone to stay by their side. They finally had one another.


End file.
